Friday 12 June 2015

DISOBEDIENCES DISSAPEARING

The last couple of months have been very exciting with a mix of training, socialising and competing over the Central and South West regions.  We ventured over to the Central region and attended their senior camp at Addington Equestrian, this was a fun filled weekend including a dressage lesson both days, a test riding session and pole work and that was just the mounted sessions, we then had unMounted workshops and on the Saturday evening we were treated to a gala evening watching young stallions from Woodlander Stud under saddle which was very informative and thoroughly enjoyable.


It was our first time visiting Addington and I can't believe I have never been before it is like a palace for horses, a sea of arenas, horse walks and a relaxed friendly atmosphere.  On arrival I decided to take advantage of using one of the arenas that was available and as Socks is not hugely worldly wise I was a little apprehensive as to (a) how we were going to get to the arena on our own and (b) how I was going to get on as I was on my own!  These small details are the ones you forget about when taking a young horse out on your own, when you have your old faithful they don't even cross your mind.  So I decided to hand walk Socks around to the outdoor arenas as she showed off her Passage along the horse walk, unfortunately I seemed to be passing everyone going back having finished so I had no-one to follow and even more worrying no-one to help me get on, thankfully on arrival a nice lady was hand grazing her horse and held Socks while I quickly hopped on and we were away.  After a short and surprisingly uneventful leg stretch I braved riding her back along the horse walk and again she excelled herself, its funny how these 'normal' activities for most are such a highlight when you've had a tricky horse that had an opinion about almost everything (a.k.a stubborn/mare).


The whole weekend followed the same theme, complete surprise at having a well behaved horse that exceeded all expectations.  We even completed our first Novice test without a disobedience and gaining a mid 60 score, result!  The best part of the weekend had to be the first lesson, Socks was definitely not your average mare when 10 minutes in the horse at the other end of the arena dislodged its rider and came flat out towards us bucking... cool as a cucumber Socks stood still allowed it to canter around her without batting an eyelid then once the horse was safely under control continued our lesson as if nothing had happened (although we did have a bit more energy).

Next on the agenda was the South West Inter County Challenge, we had been selected as an individual to represent Wiltshire, so thankfully no pressure going as an individual and it was all to gain experience and mileage competing.  Coming from a showjumping background it was an unexpected surprise to have an arena walk every morning, even if it was at 6.30am!  Day one our test was outdoors and day two indoors with the results based on the combined scores over both days.  Socks went the best she has ever gone to gain just short of 70% leaving us lying 4th overnight.  Unfortunately being good is very tiring and Socks lacked energy the next day but still completed another test without a hint of a disobedience, we only dropped one place and was absolutely thrilled to be in the prize giving ending up in 5th place overall individually, good pony!

The not so average mare has gone from below average to above average and with the South West Camp at Hartpury just round the corner its exciting to see what is still to come from little Socks as she progresses.

My next update will also include a review of eGlove GripPro riding gloves, having just received a pair to trial and review from eGlove I'm interested to see how I get on with them.  I am constantly multitasking and although when riding my full concentration is on the horse there is the occasional time during the cool down or leisurely stroll through the fields or on your way to or from the arena when the phone goes and its that call/text you've been waiting for or you need to book in that appointment, you either clumsily try to use the touchscreen with bulky gloves at all sorts of angles to make it work or stuff one glove in your pocket/mouth/boot which always leads to either glove or phone ending up on the floor!  So lets see how we get on...

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